Student writes his entire dissertation in one 40-hour sitting, gets a 2:1
128 replies, posted
[img]http://imgkk.com/i/9wmr.jpg[/img]
[url]http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/real-life/dissertation-deadline-looming-dont-stress--one-student-wrote-his-in-two-days-and-got-a-21-320584.html[/url]
[quote]If your looming dissertation deadline makes you break out in a cold sweat, fear not as we've got a last-minute success story that proves that it's possible to bang out a decent piece of work in just two days.
Paddy Hillyer, a Philosophy graduate from Warwick University, spent three days straight writing 10,000 words on Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics and psychological egoism, with the help of energy drinks and sugary snacks.
Although Paddy had a generous six months to write his dissertation, the graduate, who now works in Consultancy and Careers Development, just couldn't find the time to sit down and start writing. He told the Leicester Tab: "It got to the week before and every time I sat down I just kept finding fun things to read, and reasons not to start."[/quote]
[quote]He said: "I had read one whole book on the general area. I spent about 70% or 80% of the night doing the first third, with references and all that kind of academic stuff like you're supposed to. And then running out of time with no chance to read any more books I built a whole argument from there freestyle with no references to any other texts".[/quote]
2:1 is the second-best grade you can get in the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification]British degree classification system[/url], and spans 60-69 - he got 68 and so was two marks off the best grade you can get
Good for him!
[sp]nerd[/sp]
Is this for like a Honours, Masters or Doctorate level course? I know at my university you can't leave like any postgrad dissertation to the last minute because your progress is continuously being checked.
[quote] And then running out of time with no chance to read any more books I built a whole argument from there freestyle with no references to any other texts[/quote]
how do you get a 2:1 with no references
God damn it. I'm a horrible procrastinator, and stories like this don't help me out at all. Marvelous effort there for him.
[sp]im procrasinating right now god fucking damn it[/sp]
[quote]Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics and psychological egoism[/quote]
I could barely make it through the name of the subject, how did this guy do 10,000 words on it
Yeah, pisses me off how easy it is to thumb our grading systems. Keep in mind Warwick is one of our top universities and his course no doubt required triple AAAs at A2 level. No personal resentment for him, but jeez you shouldn't be two marks off a first having read "one whole book on the area" and written it in three days. He must be pretty good at writing essays anyway, but it's awful our assessment criteria pass that kind of effort.
[QUOTE=Jund;47408344]how do you get a 2:1 with no references[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Zeke129;47408351]I could barely make it through the name of the subject, how did this guy do 10,000 words on it[/QUOTE]
Maybe these two are linked? Maybe the grader sat down, read it, and thought "god damn, did this kid really write 10,000 words on this bullshit with only one reference? A for effort!"
Why do I have the feeling that they only read about the first third or so (which, he said, was properly referenced) before giving him a grade?
This is why no one likes philosophy majors.
The best essays are written when it feels like hell encroaches upon you. You say procrastination, I say preparation.
I may get a lot of dumbs for this but this kind of shit was what I hated about University. I'd bust my ass, spending months working on my project, giving up social time and sleep to be in the labs and I managed a 2:1 while people who do little to nothing or everything at the literal last minute were walking out with Firsts.
I know it's not a perfect system but goddamn if it doesn't feel damn unfair sometimes.
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;47408426]Why do I have the feeling that they only read about the first third or so (which, he said, was properly referenced) before giving him a grade?[/QUOTE]
so is it like an academic wild west over there
[QUOTE=Antdawg;47408332]Is this for like a Honours, Masters or Doctorate level course? I know at my university you can't leave like any postgrad dissertation to the last minute because your progress is continuously being checked.[/QUOTE]
I've heard of people who have written their dissertation overnight, they don't mention it to faculty so they don't get into trouble. Though the ones I've heard about were all in humanities, no engineering, math, or hard science field.
[QUOTE=dookster;47408449]I may get a lot of dumbs for this but this kind of shit was what I hated about University. I'd bust my ass, spending months working on my project, giving up social time and sleep to be in the labs and I managed a 2:1 while people who do little to nothing or everything at the literal last minute were walking out with Firsts.
I know it's not a perfect system but goddamn if it doesn't feel damn unfair sometimes.[/QUOTE]
The benefit of doing it later is that you arent mentally pre-commited to a topic or argument and so when it all comes out at once it is more real than 5 months worth of research pieced together. One is made with the flow of thought of a single session, whereas the other is made with a disjointed thought set of different sessions.
Since he did it, clearly I can too :v:
[QUOTE=Zenreon117;47408478]The benefit of doing it later is that you arent mentally pre-commited to a topic or argument and so when it all comes out at once it is more real than 5 months worth of research pieced together. One is made with the flow of thought of a single session, whereas the other is made with a disjointed thought set of different sessions.[/QUOTE]
But this is where editing comes into play.
[QUOTE=Zenreon117;47408478]The benefit of doing it later is that you arent mentally pre-commited to a topic or argument and so when it all comes out at once it is more real than 5 months worth of research pieced together. One is made with the flow of thought of a single session, whereas the other is made with a disjointed thought set of different sessions.[/QUOTE]
maybe you can end up just fine procrastinating but acting like there's "benefits" to it is just silly.
if you're doing an assignment given 5 months in advance only a couple days before there's a very high chance your "flow of thought" is going to come off looking like disorganized rambling.
[QUOTE=TheWhiteFox1;47408541]maybe you can end up just fine procrastinating but acting like there's "benefits" to it is just silly.[/QUOTE]
There are some benefits as well as major, very obvious downsides.
[QUOTE=EditOutJ;47408554]There are some benefits as well as major, very obvious downsides.[/QUOTE]
right "benefits that make it preferable to writing it over the course of the time given" works a bit better then
... a Philosophy graduate...
It's amazing he managed to do that but I don't think it's a good way to approach assignments like this.
[QUOTE=dookster;47408449]I may get a lot of dumbs for this but this kind of shit was what I hated about University. I'd bust my ass, spending months working on my project, giving up social time and sleep to be in the labs and I managed a 2:1 while people who do little to nothing or everything at the literal last minute were walking out with Firsts.
I know it's not a perfect system but goddamn if it doesn't feel damn unfair sometimes.[/QUOTE]
You've got to learn humility at that stage in your life
There are just some people out there who either because they were born ready or had the right upbringing can take any task, meticulously revise it, get it perfect in half the time allotted and barely have to worry in general while you pull your hair out trying to get the same stuff done to a decent standard. I knew one kid late in school who walked away with 10/11~ish A*'s at GCSE and one A, which itself was in Additional Maths (which is basically A Level stuff like calculus, the next best grade anyone in that class got was a D)
At A Level he'd spend some of his free periods playing table tennis because he was getting over 90% on every exam before the mid-year mock exam period even started. He was also once of the nicest, least arrogant and most considerate people I've ever met
The system isn't flawed at all, humanity's just fucking weird
10,000 words isn't very long, I'm assuming it was for an honors programme in which the stakes are pretty low because no one will ever read the thing. I can only assume he was skating on thin ice with his first reader/advisor. But for a philosophical dissertation it's not really that inconceivable to have ~5 pages of analysis which isn't derivative of sources. The most impressive thing is maintaining logical coherence and syntactical quality for that long.
[QUOTE=Kommodore;47408610]10,000 words isn't very long, I'm assuming it was for an honors programme in which the stakes are pretty low because no one will ever read the thing. I can only assume he was skating on thin ice with his first reader/advisor. But for a philosophical dissertation it's not really that inconceivable to have ~5 pages of analysis which isn't derivative of sources. The most impressive thing is maintaining logical coherence and syntactical quality for that long.[/QUOTE]
The biggest challenge he faced was how to write, not what to write.
And yet it still won't save him from the fact that he majored in philosophy.
[QUOTE=Antdawg;47408332]Is this for like a Honours, Masters or Doctorate level course? I know at my university you can't leave like any postgrad dissertation to the last minute because your progress is continuously being checked.[/QUOTE]
My university does that too. Doesn't stop people lying in their weekly meeting for the first 5 months and blasting it a few weeks before due.
the fact that this went public may or may not actually hurt his chances of getting into a serious graduate program given that earning the personal confidence of your faculty is more important than the actual content of the document
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;47408656]And yet it still won't save him from the fact that he majored in philosophy.[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure the PR he's getting from this will be more valuable in finding a job than any degree would be
[QUOTE=Jund;47408344]how do you get a 2:1 with no references[/QUOTE]
[quote]Warwick University[/quote]
Apparently Warwick Uni isn't great for Philosophy, at least according to the Guardian University guide:
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2014/jun/03/university-guide-2015-league-table-for-philosophy[/url]
(20th in the country)
That's not to say its bad, but it certainly makes you wonder when you can get away with only one source to base your entire work from and still come out with a 2:1.
